JOBS: Long-term unemployed can still get it done

A study suggests long-term unemployed people get the job done as well as anyone.

Â

There is a persistent opinion that someone who has been out of work for a half-year or longer is not equipped, one way or the other, to come back to work and get a job done.

But a study released last week suggests that might not be the case. Evolv, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that advises corporations on how best to manage hourly workers, studied some 90 workers and found no difference in performance between those coming off extended unemployment periods and those who were not.

A portion of the sample, roughly 14 percent of it, was people who had not worked in at least five years. Call-center workers were used for the sampling.

Evolv looked at criteria that included the speed in which the job got done, evaluations by supervisors and customer satisfaction levels. Long-term jobless scored well across the board.

According to U.S. Department of Labor data for March, some 3.7 million Americans have not worked in 27 weeks or longer.

Join the conversation

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to allow Freedom Communications, Inc. the right to republish your name and comment in additional Freedom publications without any notification or payment.